West Ham face bitter rivals Tottenham Hotspur this weekend with both Graham Potter and Ange Postecoglou under intense pressure.
The only solace for West Ham’s miserable season has been that Spurs are just as bad.
In actual fact Ange Postecoglou’s Tottenham side have been worse when it comes to Premier League losses with 19, three more than the Hammers.
That’s the worst record in the top flight outside the bottom three.
West Ham are hoping to give fans some rare joy by adding another to Tottenham’s loss column this Sunday, leapfrogging them in the table in the process.
Under pressure Graham Potter could certainly do with it having managed just three wins from his first 15 games in charge.
Season to forget and regret for West Ham and Spurs
Unlike the Hammers, Spurs do of course have the Europa League as a potential season saver.
It seems highly unlikely that would be enough to save Postecoglou’s job as their manager, though.
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Ironically, Hammers vice-chair Karren Brady wanted Postecoglou before he ended up at Tottenham.
Brady predicted the Aussie would take the Premier League by storm.
It was recently stated that Brady’s influence at West Ham has never been greater now.
She and Spurs chairman Daniel Levy used to be good friends.
But there are frosty relations between the two boardrooms since the battle for the Olympic Stadium.
Those relations may diminish further after new information came to light.
While Postecoglou has managed to cling on to his job despite overseeing one of Tottenham’s worst ever Premier League campaigns, Julen Lopetegui was sacked by West Ham.
When Lopetegui was on the brink at the turn of the year, reports claimed Levy was was close to sacking Postecoglou too.
It was claimed Spurs put pressure on West Ham to activate their agreement with Potter as they considered him to replace Postecoglou.
Now we might know why if Levy was playing the long con.
And he is the manager who forced West Ham into hiring Potter because he thinks he’s set for ‘bigger’ Spurs.
Potter’s start to life at West Ham has been so bad he’s taken the team backwards from 13th to 17th.
As a result many fans are torn over whether the Hammers should hold their hands up and look for yet another new boss in the summer or give Potter the transfer window and next season to turn things around.
Manager snubbed West Ham to hold out for “bigger” Spurs
At Tottenham, the vast majority of supporters are in agreement about their manager with Postecoglou set to depart even if they win the Europa League – and thereby qualify for the Champions League too.
Before appointing Potter, the Hammers held talks with a number of other candidates.
One of those was their former assistant coach Edin Terzic as well as the likes of Max Allegri, Paulo Fonseca and Christophe Galtier.
German Terzic was described as the tactical brain behind West Ham’s memorable Farewell Boleyn campaign under Slaven Bilic.
Since then he has become an accomplished young manager in his own right, leading Borussia Dortmund to the Champions League final last season.
Now a free agent, Terzic held talks with West Ham about replacing Lopetegui.
That came after Terzic was sounded by Hammers chief David Sullivan and Tim Steidten following West Ham’s 4-1 defeat at Spurs in October.
It has been claimed since then that the Hammers snubbed the chance to hire Terzic, preferring Potter instead after a recommendation from Brady.
But now Sport Bild in Germany claim it was Terzic who actually snubbed West Ham.
And the reason will enrage Hammers fans.
The outlet states Terzic felt West Ham were “too small” for him and that he has a strong chance of succeeding Postecoglou if and when “bigger” Tottenham dispenses of his services.
Ex Hammers coach Terzic thinks he has a chance of Spurs job
The staggering claims were made in today’s printed edition of Sport Bild, which also states Terzic has intentionally kept himself open so he is “immediately ready to talk” if and when Postecoglou departs.
Looking back around the time West Ham hired Potter, it certainly tallies with reports that were published.
West Ham fans will not be impressed by the snub – or the inference Spurs are a bigger club than them.
There is of course no guarantee Terzic would have done a better job than Potter.
But many will argue he couldn’t have done much worse.
Terzic may think Tottenham are bigger than the club he used to represent – but whether Levy sees him as big enough for them is another matter entirely.